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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22408993">shoreline</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cldstrf/pseuds/cldstrf'>cldstrf</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Pre-Kingdom Hearts I</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 13:26:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22408993</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cldstrf/pseuds/cldstrf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>she's lived here for years now, but there was something she'd yet to do.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kairi/Riku (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>shoreline</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>“Come on, Kairi, the water is great!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora was always trying to get her to get into the water, and yet she found herself nervous every time. The sea is so vast, endless in her mind and she feared that if she were to enter, she’d get swept away again, away from her new friends that had accepted her so wholly despite her strange appearance to the islands.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That is why, after years of refusing to step foot in the sea, Kairi turned to Riku.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t anything close to her not trusting Sora with this task. No, he was darling, too sweet for her own good, and for his own good as well. She adored him. Yet she admired Riku. He was quieter, but braver, more… responsible, as she’d come to learn, than her and Sora combined. It made more sense for her to approach him for this in her mind. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kairi?” He asks, bringing her out of her thoughts. “What’s wrong?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” she says softly, twiddling her thumbs idly as she fell back onto the balls of her bared feet. “Nothing, really. I just…” She pauses, and Riku quirks his head to one side in question. “Well. I have a favor to ask you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure. Anything for you,” Riku says and Kairi can feel her ears turning red at how sincere he sounds. Though she couldn’t place why it felt so nice for him to accept before she even had the chance to ask it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is kind of embarrassing. Please don’t tell Sora.” Putting her hands together in front of herself, she holds them up to her face, eyes closed to prepare herself for the question she was about to ask. Riku waits patiently, and she was so appreciative that it put her at ease to be able to ask: “can you teach me how to swim?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku’s brows shoot up in surprise, and the flush spreads to her cheeks, hiding away the small splattering of freckles that dotted her skin from the amount of time she spent outside. “Is that all?” He finally says, a grin spreading across his face and he puts his hands on her tanned shoulders. “Of course. Is that why you never come into the water?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kairi doesn’t know how to admit that the truth is, with how she had been swept up onto the shore when she arrived here, that the prospect of getting into the water was disconcerting, left an uneasy feeling in her stomach because she worried that maybe, just maybe, if she drifted too far from the shore, she’d be taken away again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sort of. I never learned how. My home… what I can remember, anyway, it didn’t really have any bodies of water I could get into. There were a lot of fountains. But I can’t really swim in those.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looks at her again in a way that expresses that he may not completely believe that’s the only reason, but he doesn’t ask yet, and she lets it slide for now. It was a conversation for another time. For now, she just wanted to get comfortable being in the water.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, sure. Come meet me at the beach in an hour or so.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>By the time she reaches the island, she can see Riku standing along the shore, in his own one piece suit that she found so very charming on him. He even had a bright yellow surfboard beside him, sticking out from the sand.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Riku!” She calls, waving her arm to catch his attention before he finally turns to her from watching the water lap at the sand, and he returns the gesture. She grins and runs over to him, letting out a puff of breath once she reaches him. “What’s that for?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This?” He taps his knuckles on the board, a dull </span>
  <em>
    <span>thunk </span>
  </em>
  <span>sounding from it. “It’s mostly so if you need it, you can grab onto it to stay afloat.” He brings his hand back in to rub at the back of his neck. “And maybe I wanted to show off a little. I’m still learning, but. Y’know.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kairi laughs, smiling at him with a soft look on her face and she nods. “Yeah! I’d like that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku smiles right back before holding out a hand in her direction, which she looks at for only a moment before she settles her fingers into his palm. His own fingers curl in, gripping onto hers and he takes a step forward, and another, guiding Kairi closer to the shoreline. The waves push the water closer still, and when her toes touch the water, she shivers.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” he says, squeezing her hand gently. “It’s okay.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She closes her eyes again to steady herself, taking in a deep breath before she lets it out slowly. “Okay.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku could only smile again, and leads her into the water, hands clutched together. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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